The present invention relates to a glove that is designed to fit snugly on a user""s hand, while also being sufficiently flexible to allow both static and dynamic hand positions and movement. More specifically, the present invention is related to a glove with an exoskeleton layer on a back portion.
Some conventional gloves typically do not permit sufficient flexibility in the fingers to perform various sports movements, such as swinging a racquet, bat, or golf club, while maintaining a tight fit in the fingers. Many gloves that have some degree of flexibility in the fingers often do so by use of a thin material that disadvantageously wears through over a short time period. Some conventional gloves also do not offer the optimum level of breathability to keep wearer""s hands comfortable and dry during use. In order to address these and other problems, some glove have been made with elastic material, particularly in the back of the glove. For example, the following patents describe gloves with a hand back that contains elastic material.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,123,832 discloses a bowling glove having a stiffening member that extends from the wrist band down to the fingers of the glove or slightly short thereof and is disposed medially of the glove. The stiffener is either secured directly to the back surface as by stitching or a suitable adhesive, for example. The stiffener is preferably elastic or resilient material capable of a two-way stretch so as to cause the glove to inherently tend to contract on the hand and thus fit snugly, as well as to impart stiffness or tension across the back of the hand to stiffen the fingers.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,701,963 to Overton discloses a glove with a backside that includes an expandable or stretchable insert that extends from the wrist cuff upwardly toward the thumb opening and spaced just inwardly from a thumb opening.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,345,609 to Fabry et al. discloses a protective glove having a back portion with at least one pocket with one or more hollow, fluid-filled shock-absorbing cells disposed therein. The cells are covered by inner and outer panels made of elastic fabric, which cooperate to form a closed pocket for a resilient, protective cellular material. The resilient panel holds the cellular material snugly in position, and is cut in substantially the same shape as the cellular material. The resilient panel then is superimposed therewith so that its edges are curled around and under the edges of the cellular material.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,708,979 to Redwood et al. discloses a glove with an elastic back. The glove includes a palm covering portion, a plurality of finger covering portions extending from the palm covering portion, and a back portion associated with the palm covering portion to form a chamber to receive a hand. The glove further includes elastic members extending from the back portion past and over at least one knuckle of each finger.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,182,293 to Mustin discloses a sports glove with a ball holding suction cup in the palm. The glove includes a body portion designed to fit in the palm of a human hand, a plurality of finger engaging portions, and a thumb engaging portion. Each finger and thumb engaging portion are of elastic material and further include a finger or thumb encircling ring.
There remains a need for other glove configurations that will provide sufficient levels of flexibility, wear resistance, and breathability, particularly for sports gloves.
The present invention is directed to a glove with a front portion and a back portion coupled thereto. The back portion includes an exoskeleton layer. The exoskeleton layer is formed of elastic material and the glove may be configured to allow the user""s hand to be visible through the exoskeleton layer.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, the glove comprises a substantially inelastic front portion and a back portion coupled to the front portion. The back portion may comprise a first substantially elastic material, and a second substantially elastic material. The second elastic material may include a plurality of elastic members.
In such a glove, the first elastic material may form a first layer and the second elastic material may form a second layer overlaying at least a portion of the first layer. In addition, the second elastic material may extend substantially across the entire back portion.
According to one aspect of the present invention, the front portion further includes a palm portion and finger portions extending from the palm portion. In such a glove, the plurality of elastic members may extend along at least one of the finger portions.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the back portion may be formed of a first layer of substantially elastic material joined to a substantially inelastic material and a second overlapping layer of substantially elastic material in the form of a plurality of elastic members.
Alternatively, in such a glove the plurality of elastic members may include at least two sets of members. The first set of members extends across the back portion and the second set of members extends along at least one of the finger portions. According to several embodiments of the present invention, the first and second sets of members may be formed of a single piece of material or as separate pieces.
In another embodiment, the additional sets of elastic members may extend along another or all of the remaining finger portions.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the first and second elastic materials may be woven material, non-woven material, neoprene, LYCRA (a polyester urea manufactured by DuPont of Wilmington, Del.), Spandex, or polyester urea, among others.
The present invention is also directed to a glove comprising a front portion and a back portion. The back portion may be comprised of a plurality of elastic members coupled to the front portion at discrete points.
The present invention is also directed to a glove comprising a front portion and a back portion. The back portion may be comprised of a plurality of molded elastic members coupled to the front portion.
According to one aspect of this invention the elastic members form a network with at least one open interstice there between, where an area of each interstice may be greater than about 2 mm2.